Pantry Organization

Pantry Before Being Organized:

Organization is a key to saving money. If you know where you put the roll of Scotch tape then you don't have to go buy a new one. If you have a place for the scissors then you don't have to run around asking everyone in the house where in the world is just one of our hundreds of pairs of scissors! Do these scenarios sound familiar? Yep, they happened to me recently when we were trying to go to a birthday party. You know what I did? I threw some cash in the card and am now saving the gift that I couldn't wrap for another party.

The same is true for your food. Oh, the many times I thought I had something in the pantry when I really didn't and I was already half way through the recipe when I realized that item was not here. And of course the opposite happens too when I might buy something I thought we needed but didn't and I bought it at full price!

To get the pantry organized the kids were each assigned 2 shelves and asked to pull out the items and put them on the dining room table. We then emptied the breakfast cabinet. I was going to do the staples, condiments, and baking cabinets but after I saw this I knew I was not going to get to it:

This is what came out of the breakfast cabinet. See that crumpled over white bag on the floor? It's a bag of dog food! I have 2 questions: 1. Why is it in the breakfast cabinet? 2. Why is it here at all? We don't have a dog!!!!!!!!!

So, it took me the better part of the morning and afternoon to go through all of this stuff. I ended up tossing some stuff that was old and opened or had expired. Good food deals aren't good deals if you end up tossing the stuff because you didn't know it was there!

Here's the outcome:


The clear shoebox on the top shelf is where I keep my bags of rice. Looks like I box of Hamburger Helper is out of place! Oh well! On the bottom in the red baskets are our individual packets of instant grits and oatmeal. We have 37 packs of grits and more than 50 packs of oatmeal! I put it on the bottom so the kids can make it themselves.

Here is the breakfast cabinet. It is also on the bottom of a cabinet so the kids can quickly make their own cereal.

Much better I would say! And here's what we have: (not including snacks and quick meals like soup, etc.)

2 Boxes Campbell's supper bakes
1 Box Lipton tea bags
onions
rice
3 boxes unflavored gelatin
6 boxes pudding mix
10 boxes Jell-o
5 Jars of ragu
3 boxes of spaghetti noodles
1 box rotini pasta
1 box lasagna noodles
5 boxes mac and cheese
2 boxes hamburger helper
2 boxes chicken helper
1 box tuna helper
1 bag egg noodles
2 boxes Zatarain's
3 bags Lipton side dishes
3 boxes shake and bake
5 boxes rice a roni
1 box stuffing
4 packs ramen noodles
2 boxes jiffy corn mix
1 can mushrooms
1 can great northern beans
1 can chili beans
2 cans refried beans
2 cans black beans
4 cans enchilada sauce
1 can tomato sauce
16 cans diced tomatoes
14 cans green beans
3 cans corn
1 can carrots
1 can mushroom soup
1 can pumpkin
bread crumbs
4 lbs. dried black eyed peas
4 lbs. dried red kidney beans
2 lbs. dried black beans
1 lb. split peas
10 packs taco seasoning
4 packs gravy mix
grits packets
oatmeal packets
cereal
pancake syrup
and various snacks and soups!


Now onto the other cabinets and freezers!